Class Notes

1996

GRD Engineering '96

Monsef, Eric

Eric Monsef ’90, M.S. ’96 led the group responsible for bringing to market HP Sprout, which was awarded Best Desktop PC at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, by PC Mag. The HP Sprout is an immersive workstation that combines a fully loaded TouchSmart all-in-one PC with a combination projector and scanner, plus cameras. Monsef is an engineering management adjunct professor and VP of Immersive Systems at HP.

1997

'97

von der Mehden, Heidi (Mehden)

Heidi von der Mehden ’97 and husband Matt Harris welcomed their first child, Stephen Joseph, on Oct. 27, 2014. Heidi also has a new position as associate winemaker for Merry Edwards Winery in the Russian River Valley, Sonoma County. The family makes their home in Santa Rosa.

submitted Feb. 18, 2015 12:14P

'97

Thibeaux, Mia

Mia Thibeaux ’97 writes, "I am now the mother of two wonderful children. I have a 5-year-old son and a 3-month-old daughter."

Contact Miamochamia28@yahoo.com

submitted Feb. 26, 2015 2:10P

UGRD Arts & Sciences '97

Rodriguez , Kimberly

Kimberly Rodriguez ’97 recently began her position as chief education advisory to California Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de Leon. Kimberly has worked for and with the California Legislature for over 15 years.

Contact Kimberly Kimberly.Rodriguez@sen.ca.gov

submitted Oct. 24, 2014 9:11A

GRD Leavey/MBA '97

Murray, Tina (Johnson)

Tina (Johnson) Murray ’90, MBA ’97 lives in Los Gatos with her husband, Kirk, and her 13-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son. Tina continues fundraising for her daughter's local public school, and recently joined the board of directors of the Skylar Hadden Foundation to ensure program funding for her son's school program for children with Asperger's and ADHD. Tina is also serving on the Grand Reunion Committee for her class of 1990.

Dale Kim is the director of industry solutions at MapR. His background includes a variety of technical and management roles at information technology companies. While his experience includes work with relational databases, much of his career pertains to non-relational data in the areas of search, content management, and NoSQL, and includes senior roles in technical marketing, sales engineering, and support engineering. Dale holds an MBA from Santa Clara University, and a BA in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

submitted Feb. 1, 2015 3:57P

'97

Fitzpatrick, Thomas

Thomas F. Fitzpatrick J.D. '97 is partner and co-chair of the Intellectual Property Litigation Practice Group of Pepper Hamilton LLP, resident in the Silicon Valley office. He recently was a speaker at The Knowledge Group/The Knowledge Congress Live Webcast Series, entitled: “Best Trends and Practices in Avoiding Trade Secrets and Third Parties Litigation.”

Mr. Fitzpatrick focuses his practice on all aspects of intellectual property, including litigating patent, trade secret, trademark, technology licensing and other related disputes. He has represented both patent owners and patent defendants in federal courts throughout the country, including in the Northern, Central and Southern Districts of California, the Eastern District of Texas, the Eastern District of Virginia, the District of Delaware, the Northern District of Georgia and the District of Arizona. Most recent, Mr. Fitzpatrick has successfully represented internationally based and publicly traded companies in the computer database, telecommunications, semiconductor, Internet and power supply industries.

At SCU, Fitzpatrick received the American Jurisprudence Award in Patent Law and was the research editor for the Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal.

submitted Apr. 23, 2015 8:58A

1998

UGRD Leavey Business '98

Siregar, Nazly

Nazly Siregar ’98 was made a partner with Deloitte Southeast Asia in January 2013.

Contact Nazlynsiregar@deloitte.com

submitted Sep. 8, 2014 2:01A

'98

Sifferman, Stephen

Stephen Sifferman '93, M.S. '98 received the School of Engineering's 2015 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award, which honors alumni whose accomplishments in their professions, communities, and/or service to the School of Engineering have set them apart. Sifferman reflects the qualities and characteristics that best define the ideals of a Jesuit education: a passion for and commitment to excellence.

For the past 20 years, Steve Sifferman has had a distinguished career in the wireless communications industry. Beginning as a senior software engineer at Northrop Grumman, he moved on to ArrayComm, where he worked his way up the ranks to eventually taking on the role of President of the world leader in multi-antenna signal processing software products for wireless communications. During his time with ArrayComm, he helped develop cutting-edge technologies and holds numerous patents in recognition of his work. Respected not only for his technical ability, Steve is also lauded for his managerial and leadership abilities. In his current capacity as president and CEO of Tarana Wireless, Inc., Steve is guiding the company’s evolution from its successful first phase of technology development into broad commercialization and growth. Beyond serving his company, he impacts his field as a board member of the Telecommunications Industry Association. For his contribution to the development of wireless communication technologies and outstanding leadership within his industry, Steve was selected to receive this honor.

He continues to live in Santa Clara with his wife, Leslie Anne (Rettig) Sifferman '93, and their three children: Greg, Stephanie, and Nick.

submitted Apr. 28, 2015 1:04P

GRD Law '98

Moreland, Michele

Seasoned IP executive Michele Moreland ’89, J.D. ’98 has been appointed to oversee SITO Mobile's IP strategy. The company is a leading mobile engagement platform provider. Prior to joining SITO Mobile, Michele was the director of acquisitions for RPX Corporation where she oversaw the assessment, valuation, acquisition and licensing of patents against clients. Prior to RPX Corporation Ms. Moreland worked as a Partner at McDermott Will & Emery and as an Associate at Cooley Godward LLP focused solely on patent litigation.

submitted Feb. 1, 2015 3:35P

'98

Henninger, Ragan

Ragan Henninger ’98 has been appointed senior policy advisor in the office of San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. Ragan joined Sam’s council office in 2007, first as a council assistant, then spent five years as chief of staff. Her policy expertise includes environment, housing, budget and economic development, including work on the citywide inclusionary housing policy, plastic bag ban, and downtown high-rise incentive. She later left service with the city to manage Sam’s successful mayoral campaign in 2014. She previously worked for HomeFirst (formerly EHC LifeBuilders) as the director of Development and Communications where she was responsible for raising over $12 million annually.

Ragan currently serves on the board of Legacy Alviso San José Youth Foundation and is responsible for the foundation’s charitable distributions. Ragan and her husband live in the Cambrian neighborhood of San José, where they are raising their daughter.

submitted Jan. 9, 2015 2:16P

UGRD Arts & Sciences '98

Dennison, Jeffrey

Jeffrey Dennison ’98 is the director of Marketing and Communications for Washington State University Tri-Cities in Richland, Washington. Jeff provides leadership in producing and managing WSU Tri-Cities internal communications, social media, marketing and branding.

submitted Jan. 21, 2015 3:14P

UGRD Leavey Business '98

De Buizer, Amber (Nixon)

Amber (Nixon) De Buizer ’98 has been elected to the 2015-2016 Board of Directors for the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) - Silicon Valley Chapter. She is currently Director of Development at Acterra in Palo Alto. She and husband James welcomed their son, Ryker, on November 18, 2013. The family lives in Santa Clara.

Contact Amberwww.linkedin.com/in/amberdebuizer

submitted Oct. 15, 2014 2:46P

GRD Leavey/MBA '98

Das, Sujal

Sujal Das MBA ’98 has joined the executive management team of Netronome as the senior vice president and general manager of strategy and Data Center Business Unit. Netronome isthe leading provider of data plane processing solutions for software-defined networks. Das brings more than 20 years of experience with success in leading growth for a number of networking semiconductor companies including Broadcom, Mellanox and Marvell.

A strategic leader with a deep understanding of the market, Das recently led data center and SDN related initiatives at Broadcom helping establish the growth of merchant switch silicon and bare metal switches as a forceful trend in data center networking. Prior to that, at Mellanox, Das led the expansion of the company’s growth into the data center market by establishing the value of the company’s technologies in mainstream applications. Sujal also held key marketing and product development positions at Marvell and AMD.

submitted Oct. 22, 2014 12:56P

'98

Crowley, Kristen

Kristen Crowley ’98 is teaching kindergarten special education and developmental preschool for the Pasco School District in Pasco, Washington. She is also attending WSU-Pullman's graduate school.

submitted Mar. 2, 2015 12:32A

'98

Christopher, Erahm (Machado)

Erahm (Machado) Christopher '98 wrote and directed his feature debut, Listen, slated for a release this year. The raw drama is inspired by his work with the educational program Teen Truth, which he launched. He has produced and directed three award-winning Teen Truth films and an operatic film for Bravo!; co-authored and published the book, Teen Truth: Why Youth Have Something to Hide; and conceptualized a live experience that has reached nearly 2 million people worldwide. More than 6 million people have seen his critically acclaimed Teen Truth series, and he has traveled the globe speaking to more than 700,000 people in schools, government agencies, and corporations.

submitted May. 7, 2015 1:43P

UGRD Arts & Sciences '98

Boznanski, Blake

Blake Boznanski ’98 and Erica (Milanese) Boznanski ’03 welcomed their second son, Beckett Rick, into this world on Nov. 23, 2014. The family resides in San Francisco.

submitted Dec. 28, 2014 11:25P

'98

Ball, Patti

The law firm of Thompson & Knight LLP is pleased to announce the addition of Patricia E. Ball ’98 as counsel in the Employment and Labor Practice Group of the firm's Los Angeles office. "Patricia is a seasoned litigator with significant trial experience and will be a valuable addition to our employment litigation team," said Tony Campiti, practice leader for the firm's Employment and Labor Practice Group.

submitted Aug. 19, 2014 12:35P

1999

GRD Law '99

Shipman, Scott

Scott Shipman J.D. ’99 has been appointed General Counsel & Chief Privacy Officer by Sensity Systems Inc., the pioneer of Light Sensory Networks. Under Shipman, Sensity’s global privacy program will work with governing bodies, businesses, and experts worldwide to build regulatory practices around LSNs and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) implementations.

Before joining Sensity, Shipman spent his entire legal career at eBay Inc. as an in-house attorney. After taking eBay public in 1998, Shipman helped build many of eBay’s legal functions. Most recent, he built and led the company’s privacy practice in his role as eBay’s CPO, where he managed and oversaw the privacy practices for eBay Marketplaces, PayPal and Skype. During this time, eBay received the “Most Trusted Brand For Privacy” designation from the Ponemon Institute.

Shipman frequently testifies to regulators and government officials on privacy, data protection and information security. Shipman earned his JD with an emphasis in high-tech law from Santa Clara University School of Law and a BA in environmental conservation from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Shipman also teaches Comparative Privacy Law at Santa Clara University, School of Law.

Hilary Hendershott ’99, MBA ’11 appeared in the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 2014 40 Under 40 list. She is the founder and CEO of Hilary Hendershott Financial, one of Silicon Valley's only woman-owned and operated investment advisory firms. She has made it her mission to empower women to maximize their own resources, grow their wealth and live sustainable and healthy lives. She has created a financial training program, Your Rich Retirement Academy, which is delivered virtually and designed for Millennial and younger investors, and teaches both healthy money mindsets and technical skills such as calculation of net worth and retirement savings goals, to enable long-range financial success.

Hendershott volunteers at the Financial Planning Association's Pro Bono Day, where professionals offer financial advice to individuals who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford those services. She also co-created and spearheaded an annual fundraising event for the Emergency Housing Consortium's youth shelter

The San Jose native has also volunteered as a leadership skills coach for Landmark Worldwide for more than six years. In this volunteer role, Hendershott provides coaching and guidance for individuals looking to improve their communication, effectiveness and leadership skills. She has been responsible for programs of up to 80 individual participants and 15 trained coaches and estimates that she has likely spent over 1000 hours in these volunteer efforts.

She has also been a foster mother.

submitted Jan. 9, 2015 8:31A

UGRD Leavey Business '99

Diaz, Alma (Parra)

Angel Diaz ’99 and Alma Diaz Parra ’01 welcomed their second child, Antonio Ernesto, on Oct. 27, 2014. He joins big brother Eduardo Angel who is three years old and the family resides in Los Angeles.